The subject changes to the fortification of Mount Zion, so translators should begin a new paragraph at this point.

At that time they fortified Mount Zion with high walls and strong towers round about: Here Mount Zion is the hill in Jerusalem on which the Temple was located. The walls around the Temple had been destroyed, so they had to be rebuilt (see 1Macc 1.31). For towers see the comments on 1Macc 1.33. An alternative model for this clause is “Then they built high walls around Mount Zion and put strong towers on the walls.”

To keep the Gentiles from coming and trampling them down as they had done before: The pronoun them refers to Mount Zion or the Temple itself. This clause may be rendered “so that the Gentiles could not come in and walk around on it [or, in the Temple] as they had before.”

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 1-2 Maccabees. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.